After two straight wins against Olympiakos, AEK would have gone in to today’s game against Tripolis knowing the 3 points were anything but guaranteed. Sure enough, we had a much harder time today though I would argue a lot of that came from bad luck rather rather than having anything to do with the opponent we were facing.

Bearing that in mind, it didn’t help that Athanasiadis had what might have been one of the best games of his career in nets for Tripolis. What really made this match a struggle for us though was the inability of players like Araujo and Livaja to finish plays which they normally would have no problem scoring on.

It was absurd really, but the ball just didn’t want to go in. We had a lucky break when we were awarded a penalty (rightfully so I might add) which Lazaros was able to put away, otherwise I’m not sure we would have scored any other way. I still cannot wrap my head around what I saw from Araujo today. After scoring one of the nicest goals of the season earlier this week, there was nothing he could do today to get the ball in the net. Aside from missing a relatively easy header and having another post later in the match, his strangest miss came early on in the match. A simple cross in from Masoud was dangerously deflected by an Asteras defender and was heading right for the open net when Araujo inexplicably tried to kick the ball into the net. Understandable as he was just looking to guide it a little more but the result of his attempt was the ball hitting the crossbar and floating harmlessly away from goal. The worst part about the whole play is that had Araujo simply not even touched the ball, it would have gone in on its own without a doubt.

Its one of those plays thats simply too hard to even understand, but I suppose its forgivable considering what Araujo has done for us so far. To be honest I’d rather he miss today and get it out of his system, considering we got the win, if it means he’ll be having some better luck for our match against Dynamo Kiev in a few days time.

Overall, it wasn’t a terrible match by any stretch. Tripolis are always a tricky opponent so any win is a win I’ll take, even more so considering Olympiakos’ draw against Atromitos earlier today. The good news from today’s game is that we’re now first, at least until tomorrow when that could change depending on PAOK’s result against Larissa. The bad news from today’s game though is that Kone had to leave the pitch shortly after coming on as a sub. He suffered a leg injury after recovering awkwardly from a challenge though its still not known the extent of the injury. Hopefully it won’t keep him out too long, as we’re already stretched thin as far as injuries are concerned.

Some positives from the match for me include:

Hult, our new singing from PAO, had a pretty solid start at left back today. The Swede, who was with PAO for two years and was arguably one of their better players recently, looked good overall defensively but was also able to contribute going forward on a few occasions. What I liked about his presence in the starting 11 today was that it allowed Bakakis to cover right back which gave Galo the opportunity to play as a right midfielder, a position that suited him as hes always been an offensively minded player.

Today’s match was our 22nd match undefeated in all competitions which I believe is a new record for the team. For more info on this run, check out this AgonaSport article here

As of now, this is how the top 5 of the standings looks:

Still far too close for comfort, and I expect PAOK to get the win tomorrow. But hey, at least its exciting for once!

AEK 6-0 Veria

Just a few days after beating Levadeiakos 6-0 in the Cup, our attacking form carried over to our league game today against Veria. Thats right, two 6-0 games in a row, bringing our total goals scored to 15 after the first five games for Jimenez. Not only that, but we’ve managed to not concede a single goal since he took over, an impressive feat considering we were conceding a little too easily prior to his time with the team.

Aside from the game against Tripolis, we’ve faced pretty weak opposition since hes been in charge. Regardless, the change is evident and whether we’re able to compete consistently with the teams above us remains to be seen doesn’t take away from the fact that the team has seemed to have found confidence and understanding on the pitch that simply wasn’t there before.

Today’s lineup featured some changes from the lineup against Levadeiakos but it seemed to work just as well. Notably, Bakasetas wasn’t in the starting lineup today as our attacking midfield instead consisted of Mantalos, Araujo, and Christodolopoulos. Also of note was the fact that Pekhart was the striker with Araujo instead playing a support role today. From what I was hearing on the radio, it seemed to work quite well, even though surprisingly enough, both Pekhart and Araujo did not end up on the scoring sheet.

The MVP of the match was, without much surprise, Christodolopoulos. He opened the scoring with a fantastic finish and finished the match up with the final goal just before the whistle. Our other scorers were Lambropoulos and Mantalos, while Veria also scored an own goal.

Overall it sounded like the entire team played well today. Veria might not have pressured us very much at all throughout the game but it didn’t sound like we had a weak link out there, something which I’m not used to seeing with this team so far this season.

I’ve posted a YouTube video of the highlights below but seeing as the quality is quite awful, you can also see higher quality highlights on the NovaSports site: http://aek365.novasports.gr

EDIT: I completely forgot to mention the goal by Vranjes. He has been pretty solid for us and as others have commented online, our defense when he is finally paired with Chyrgrynski will be pretty impressive.